Monthly Archives: August 2016

Today I’m going to cut to the chase, I’m going to share a tip on prayer with you all, which I find to be extremely useful.

Ever had a time in your life where you found praying to be a challenge? Well today I’m going to openly say that I’ve been through phases in my life where I have literally struggled to pray, and I mean really struggled. I can also tell you that a few of my Christian friends have also found it difficult to pray, at certain points in their life. So if you find yourself in such a dilemma, don’t stress, you are not alone, trust me! I believe that for many Christians, prayer is a vital part of their faith, it’s how they communicate with God. Prayer is something that we should be incorporating into our everyday life, as it is one of the things which keeps us on the straight and narrow. Furthermore, the Bible encourages us to ‘Pray without ceasing’ (Thessalonians 5:17), and also states, that ‘we ought to pray without losing heart’ (Luke 18:1). So then why is prayer so difficult for some of us? Well I can tell you one reason why, and that’s because the devil simply doesn’t want us to pray. He wants to silence us, because he knows that our prayers move mountains. And sometimes I have to remind myself that, by speaking aloud the words ‘I can move mountains from my room’.

Quite often I find that when I want to pray, or whilst I’m praying, that’s when random thoughts start to pop into my head. Distracting thoughts, thoughts which cause me to start to worry and fear etc. Then I start to get frustrated about the fact that my mind is not concentrated on prayer, and spend a lot of time asking God to forgive me for my lack of attentiveness, to the point I’m almost throwing myself a pity party. Then the Spirit moves me, and causes me to rise up, and then I begin to declare the word of God out loud, in order to silence the lies of the enemy.

With fervent communion with God, a solution on how to keep my prayers and mind focused, popped into my head. I’d just like to make it clear that this tip of mine is NOT law, I just thought it would be useful to share with others. It may be of help to some of you, but it does not have to be strictly followed. The practical way in which I found helped give my prayer life a boost, was using the alphabet. I can firmly say that I do not use the alphabet to pray every day, and I have not been doing so lately, but I do believe that it did help refuel my prayer life, for that particularly dry season I was in. My greatest boost came from my number one supporter the Holy Spirit, who constantly encouraged me, and cheered me on during prayer.

I will now go on to sharing an example with you, of how exactly I utilized the alphabet, during my quiet time. (Also if you have kids, or teach children in Sunday school, I believe that this tool would be a great way of teaching them how to pray).

Please see table below.

Prayer point

Point beginning with A

A Shop/Business

Abercrombie & Finch, Adobe etc.

A Person

Anne, Amy, Annie, Arthur, Adam etc.

A fruit

Apricot, Apple, Avocado etc.

A country

Antarctica, Angola, America, Antigua, Afghanistan etc.

A State/County

Arizona (America), Avon (England) etc.

A vegetable

Asparagus

An Animal

Antelope

Now you may find it strange that I have prayed over things such as fruits, vegetables and wild animals, but God has actually given us authority over His creation (Genesis 1:26). When he placed Adam in the garden of Eden, Adam’s responsibility was to care for that garden, and everything in it (Genesis 2:15). Therefore, I see it as our obligation to pray over the production of our fruits and veg. To pray against famine, and to pray that farmers have a bountiful harvest, because at the end of the day, farming is where we get much of our food from. And yes we should pray for animals, because extinction of one species, has a knock on effect on the whole ecosystem, and when God created the animals He was pleased with what He saw, because he said ‘It was good’ (Genesis 1: 21 &25). The bible states that a righteous person cares for the need of animals (Proverbs 12:10). I believe it’s possible to care for animals without being a vegetarian, but that’s just a whole new topic in itself.

Overall I hope this post has been inspiring for you all, and that each of you have taking something away from it. But bye for now, take care and God bless.